The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Friday, August 2, 2013

The Church of the Covenant -- 310 E. 42d Street

photo by Alice Lum

When the six-year old Presbyterian Church of the Covenant
began plans for a “country chapel” and parish house in 1871 it did not have far
to look for an architect.Josiah
Cleaveland Cady had formed the architectural partnership of Cady, Berg & See
the previous year.He was also among a
group of church members who had earlier established a mission Sunday school
above a stable on East 40th Street.

The original church, on Fourth Avenue, was designed by Renwick -- photo NYPL Collection

Now the church had decided to establish the Sunday school
along with a chapel and parish house seven blocks north at No. 310 East 42nd
Street.The New York Times later reported “The church
grew so rapidly and extended its mission work over such an area that it was
found necessary to erect a mission chapel.A plot of ground was purchased on East Forty-second Street, near Second
Avenue, and here was built what has since been called the Covenant Chapel.”

Cady designed a charming Victorian Gothic structure of
brown-red brick trimmed in limestone.Quaint gables, diamond-paned windows and a slate tiled roof melded into
a picturesque structure in the still-developing neighborhood.

photo by Alice Lum

The northward growth of the city that instigated the new
chapel would, before long, cause the closing of the Church of the Covenant.On December 17, 1894 The New York Times
reported “Being inadequate to the needs of the congregation, the mother church,
on Park Avenue, was torn down some time ago, and its congregation will now
worship in the chapel, to which has been transferred the title Church of
theCovenant.”Special services were held the evening before
commemorating the original church cornerstone and a memorial tablet to William
Curtis Noyes which were installed in the former chapel.

In the summer of 1897 Sunday school teacher Mrs. Ann Jacques
initiated a series of ten-day outings in the country for young boys of the
congregation.She took groups of the
boys to Nyack, New York, where they could get away from the crowded city and
enjoy the fresh air.The problem was
that she failed to notify the boys’ parents.

The mother of Joseph McCormack rushed to the 67th
Street police station in June saying that a “woman in black” had kidnapped her
son.After some investigation,
Detectives Keating and McDonald discovered the woman in black was Ann
Jacques.

The Times explained “She went to the McCormacks and asked
Joseph’s 14-year-old sister, Nellie if the boy wouldn’t like to go away.Nellie let the boy go.She couldn’t explain the matter to her
mother, who reported to the police that the boy had been kidnapped.”The newspaper added “Half a dozen other
east-side boys are said to be likewise ‘missing’ and at Nyack.”

photo by Alice Lum

Sunday services in the Church of the Covenant were normally
subdued.But such was not the case on
April 3, 1898.On that evening services
“were rudely interrupted by a sneak thief,” according to The New York Times.

Church member Joseph Miller arrived late and slipped into a
rear pew.He casually tossed his
overcoat over the back of the pew and turned his attention to the service.Earlier the sexton, Benjamin F. Davis, had
noticed two young men enter the church.His suspicions were raised when the men loitered about in the rear,
without taking a seat.Davis watched the
men distrustfully.His caution was
warranted.

“As soon as Miller had become interested one of these young
men seized his coat and was about to make off with it when Davis grabbed him,”
reported The Times.“There was a lively
tussle in the rear of the church, several members going to the assistance of
the sexton.”

When Police Officer Widder arrived Davis was still holding
21-year old William Reilly.Unfortunately, according to the newspaper, “his confederate got away.”

As the years passed, the neighborhood around the Church of the
Covenant gradually changed.Tenements, a
power plant and slaughterhouses filled the surrounding blocks.Then in the 1920s real estate developer Fred
F. French changed all that.He built his
quixotic Tudor City on the three square blocks between East 40th to
East 43rd Streets, from First Avenue to Second.

The first residential high-rise complex in the world, the
buildings reflected old English architectural styles—neo Gothic, Tudor revival,
and Jacobethan.Despite their height, the
quaint design of the structures created an Old World atmosphere.

When the Church of the Covenant (by now affiliated with the
Brick Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue) laid plans for replacing its
outdated parish house, it turned to Tudor City for inspiration.On December 1, 1926 a meeting of congregants
was held during which the planned $30,000 parish house was announced.

The Tudor-inspired Parish House melded nicely with the Gothic church -- photo by Alice Lum

The new parish house was completed the following year.Its Tudor-inspired design with diamond-paned
windows, half timbering and creative brickwork was surprisingly harmonious with
the Gothic church.

In 1933 Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and his
racist pronouncements raised the ire of Rev. Howard V. Yergin of the Church of
the Covenant.On April 29, 1934 Yergin
denounced Hitler from the pulpit.In
what was no doubt a controversial sermon, he also attributed the blame for
religious racism to Jews and Christians alike.

“I am, frankly, about as much irritated by certain leaders
of the Jewish race in America as I am by Hitler,” he said.“Both proceed on the same assumption—that the
Jews are a race apart, with special attributes, either of good or evil.I refuse to accept the contention that the
Jews are now the chosen people of God, whatever they may have been at one
time.To believe that in the year 1934
any one race is chosen of God is to do violence to every concept I have of a
God who is God of all the earth and of every race and individual therein.”

The Christians were not off the hook either.“If, therefore I call upon every Christian to
cease looking upon Jews just as Jews and therefore to eschew Ku Klux Klans and
so forth, so also I call upon those of the Jewish race and religion to cease
thinking of themselves as a people set apart and thereby entitled to special
consideration.”

The following year the Church of the Covenant was the scene
of a grisly accident.Herman R.
Voigtlander was a 52-year old hosiery manufacturer who lived in a one-room apartment
in the Tudor City Woodstock Tower building.Around 10:00 on the night of October 14, 1935 church sexton Max Grandel
heard a crash and called police.

The responding officers discovered the pajama-clad body of
Voigtlander on the roof of the church.Detectives found that his bed had been slept in and surmised that he
lost his balance while opening the casement window, falling to his death on the
church roof.

In 1950 the city graded 42nd Street, lowering it
several feet. The change necessitated a
granite and limestone base and a flight of steps from the new sidewalk
level.The entry doors were repositioned
at the time.

J. Cleaveland Cady’s delightful Church of the Covenant
continues as a vigorous presence in the Tudor City neighborhood.

My 93 year old grandmother remembers attending a summer camp at a church on East 42nd Street in the late 1920s/early 1930s. She told me that she and the other children slept there for two weeks, but due to a disease...they kept the children there for 6 weeks as a safety precaution. I am wondering if this is the church that she remembers... She lived on 45th Street, so it seems natural that this would be the one! Just thought I'd share.